Sleeping, Dreaming, and Reading

(Not necessarily in that order)

Back to back nights of zombie dreams. Not necessarily bad zombie dreams, but there were still the various things associated with a zombie attack; gore, viscera, terror, and the collapse of society.

I have had a reoccurring "character" in my zombie dreams for months, sometimes she is a minor character and sometimes she takes a more major role. She is a brunette who is cute and while she reminds me of someone I used to know from the "old" Lionheart, she is not someone from my real life. She did have a major place in the zombie dreams of the past couple of nights. She does have a name as well. Her name is Rachel and she was a systems engineer in a previous life. She is also a vegetarian, Jewish, and she grew up outside of Chicago. She had been part of our "merry little band" (used with full irony) since the beginning and she was more than competent with a firearm. Something about her father being a sharpshooter (in the backstory that had been developed in my mind) was the reason for her proficiency.

This series of dreams involved us being holed up in an apartment building (upscale, and well appointed) waiting for a series of zombie armies to march past. It was tense, but we all knew that we were safe and in a well defended situation. Therefore, the dreams was a bunch of us sitting around and talking.

Anyway, Rachel and I were talking and she was asking about my life before and I couldn't remember anything, and then I said that I was just a "fat, bald geek with too many strong opinions" and I did not have many people close to me.

She laughed and then said that I had to be delusional because I was not fat and I certainly was not bald. She then walked me over to a mirror and I had a full head of great hair. Hair that I haven't had since I was nineteen, and I looked good. For what seemed like an hour of dream time, I looked at my hair.

It was amazing, and I woke up with a smile on my face.

This brings me to an experiment that I have been running. As I have documented, I have serious sleep issues, and they have been worse as of late. For the longest time, I have needed talk radio (when there wasn't a warm body next to me, and that hasn't happened for a while) to help me fall asleep. Generally, NPR but I have also used podcasts. Rachel Maddow's voice is a wonderful way to help me sleep, but there have been others, including the Slate series of podcasts. Here is one of the issues though, I cannot fall asleep to the Political Gabfest nor can I fall asleep to Hang Up and Listen, but the Culture Gabfest will put me to sleep within minutes.

This brings me to the experiment.

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen Metcalf (of the aforementioned Culture Gabfest) wrote a wonderful piece for New York documenting how his therapists had a tendency to fall asleep during his sessions. I had noticed that falling asleep to Metcalf (who is a delight in person, and is becoming a huge pimp for the things that are great about Upstate NY) was easier than with others. So, I loaded up my iPod with old podcasts and tried something. Every night I used the Culture Gabfest, I was asleep quickly, and every time I tried something else, I was tossing, turning, and giving in to my own neurosis.

I know that this is not exactly the scientific method, but...could it be that Metcalf's sonorous voice is the reason that his therapists fell asleep, because that is the conclusion that I am drawing for myself.

(This is not to say that the Culture Gabfest isn't one of the best podcasts available as well as a very interesting listen. If you have not checked it out, you really should.)

It has been suggested by one of my health professionals that I ween myself off of needing background noise, and that I engage in other behaviors in order to help, but...for the time being, when I really need to sleep, I am going to take me some Metcalf.

(Oh, and the reading referenced in the title was the NYMag article. You should read it if you haven't.)